Tim Tebow deserves to be commended for responding to a Twitter campaign connecting him with the victim of a drunk driver. / Tom Gannam, AP

by Simon Samano, USA TODAY Sports

by Simon Samano, USA TODAY Sports

Haters will hate, because that's what they do, but what Tim Tebow did earlier this week was a classy move worthy of our praise.

The hashtag #TebowCallMatt trended Monday on Twitter in an effort to connect the Jets quarterback with New York area high school football player Matthew Hardy, the survivor of a car crash involving a drunk driver. Tragically, though, Hardy lost his girlfriend and friend in the accident. When Tebow caught wind of the campaign, he did his good deed by calling Hardy that day to offer some words of encouragement.

On Wednesday, Tebow spoke about the experience.

"Anytime something like that happens to me, it's humbling," Tebow said, via ESPNNewYork.com. "You feel almost not worthy of being wanted to talk to somebody. You think of what have I done to deserve an opportunity to try to encourage a kid like that. It's worth everything, and it's awesome. It's better than any touchdown I'll ever score."

Tebow said that, after he convinced Hardy and his friends on speaker that it wasn't a prank call, they had a great conversation and prayed together over the phone.

"We talked for a while, and he was just in awesome spirits for what had taken place. He was just an inspiration to me," Tebow said. "You call him, trying to encourage him (and) trying to say a few words of inspiration, but the way his attitude was and his focus, it was just awesome.

"The support from his friends around him was just so cool. You could hear them on the phone. They had it on speaker. For dealing with everything that he's dealing with, losing his friends (and) his girlfriend, and the injuries that he has, it just puts everything into perspective to know that all this trivial stuff right here, we care about it, but it really doesn't matter."

There might be plenty of ways that Tebow annoys you, but this shouldn't be one of them.